The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to image detectors, and more particularly to systems and methods for filtering noise in the pixelated image detectors.
Detectors for diagnostic imaging systems, for example, detectors for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and computed tomography (CT) imaging systems are often produced from semiconductor materials, such as cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe), often referred to as CZT, cadmium telluride (CdTe) and silicon (Si), among others. These semiconductor detectors typically include arrays of pixelated detector modules. These detector modules and/or the components thereof (e.g. application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)) may not operate properly, either continuously or intermittently. This improper operation can cause significant problems during steps of the semiconductor-based imaging device production. If such module behavior is detected at the detector screening/system manufacturing stages, the module will be discarded, thereby resulting in a decreased production yield.
For an imaging system that is in use, a module may be incorrectly generating faulty or invalid information, for example incorrect photon counts in a nuclear medicine (NM) imaging system that may be detected as clinically relevant energies, and added to the acquired image. Such modules may cause significant image artifacts, thereby decreasing image quality and reducing the reliability of image acquisition results and any analysis of these images thereafter. In NM applications where energy discrimination is important or critical, such modules may decrease device ability to differentiate between imaging isotopes.